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5 Things You May Have Missed in Apple Earnings Last Week

These data points may have been overlooked amidst the carnage.

With Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) investors still bruised from last week's post-earnings pummeling, there are some data points that may have been overlooked amid the carnage. Here are five things you may have missed in Apple earnings last week.

400 and countingAs Apple expands its global retail footprint, the company's retail strategy has reached a new milestone, hitting over 400 stores. Apple closed the quarter with 401 retail stores, and most of that expansion has been internationally. The company's retail focus has rightly shifted abroad, and its domestic footprint still hovers around 250. Of the 11 stores opened last quarter, 10 of these were international locations.

Source: Earnings conference calls.

In the third quarter, Apple opened 17 stores, with only 1 of those being in the U.S. Over the past six quarters, the vast majority of retail store openings have been international.

Hey, big spenderWhen Apple filed its 10-K last quarter, it said it was expecting to spend $10 billion in capital expenditures in fiscal 2013. To put that figure into context, that's almost as much as the $13 billion that Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) is planning to spend in 2013, a company that operates the most advanced chip foundries known to man.

Only $850 million of that $10 billion is set aside for retail stores, with most of the remainder allocated to product tooling and manufacturing gear that will sit within manufacturing partners' facilities. However, keep in mind that Apple overspent its forecast capital expenditures in 2012 by 29%. It was originally planning on spending $8 billion last year, and it ended up spending $10.3 billion.

Last quarter alone, Apple spent $2.4 billion on cap ex, which is close to the $2.5 billion that Intel spent. Intel's heavy spending has caused anxiety among investors, since most were expecting it to spend less on capacity expansion amid the downturn in the PC market. Instead, Intel is betting big on new cutting-edge factories that can accommodate 450-millimeter silicon wafers.

Apple has faced supply constraints with several of its key products, so its investment to boost capacity is one of the better things to spend its $137 billion on.

Foreign cash is kingSpeaking of that $137 billion money mountain, $94.2 billion of it now sits overseas, held by foreign subsidiaries. That's a total sequential increase of $15.9 billion, with most of that cash being generated abroad.

Cash

Q2 2012

Q3 2012

Q4 2012

Foreign

$81.4 billion

$82.6 billion

$94.2 billion

Domestic

$35.8 billion

$38.7 billion

$42.9 billion

Total

$117.2 billion

$121.3 billion

$137.1 billion

Source: SEC filings.

That's a sequential increase of $11.6 billion in foreign cash, again showing how important international sales are to Apple. Some of this relates to Apple's practice of shifting some sales to international subsidiaries as part of its tax strategy, but a lot of it is still generated by international sales that accounted for 61% of revenue last quarter.

Since most of Apple's manufacturing partners are abroad, having all those international dollars comes in handy.

I'll take a RIM's worth of componentsThat brings us right to Apple's manufacturing and component purchase commitments. I noted a huge sequential increase heading into the fourth quarter. While that didn't translate into the blowout that I was expecting, those third-party commitments remain elevated relative to historical levels. At the end of December, those commitments stood at $18.9 billion.

Source: SEC filings.

These types of commitments typically cover Apple's requirements for what it thinks it will need for up to 150 days based on projected demand information. While investors fret about growth deceleration, Apple still feels confident enough about its prospects to be on the hook for manufacturing and component commitments that total more than some entire companies are worth. These commitments are worth more than either Nokiaor Research In Motion'sentire respective market caps.

Holiday shopping season 2.0China has become so important to the business that Apple now reports it as a separate geographical operating segment. If you include retail, Apple's "Greater China" revenue totaled $7.3 billion, which was up 62% from $4.5 billion a year ago. The thing to remember in China is that the fourth quarter is not the busy holiday shopping season. That comes during the first quarter along with Chinese New Year in February. The $7.9 billion in sales in Q1 2012 is currently Apple's record in the region.

Greater China Revenue

Q4 2011

Q1 2012

Sequential Increase Into Q1 2012

Q4 2012

With retail

$4.5 billion

$7.9 billion

76%

$7.3 billion

Without retail

$4.1 billion

$7.6 billion

87%

$6.8 billion

Sources: Earnings conference calls and SEC filings.

Apple posted monster sequential increases heading into the first quarter last year. Part of this jump was due to the iPhone 4S launch that took place in January 2012. This time around, Apple launched the iPhone 5 in December with 2 million unit sales but with only two weeks to go.

Last quarter, Apple posted several new records, including revenue, net income, iPhone units, and iPad units. This current quarter, Apple could easily post another record: Greater China revenue.

Author

Evan is a Senior Technology Specialist at The Motley Fool. He was previously a Senior Trading Specialist at Charles Schwab, and worked briefly at Tesla. Evan graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, and is a CFA charterholder.